At last, I finally got around to making screen captures of the Chinese Paladin opening and closing credits! (These can now also be found in our gallery)

I remember the first time I watched the opening theme for Chinese Paladin, I was “wowed”. Having played the original game, I easily identified many of the iconic scenes, such as Li Xiaoyao and Zhao Ling’er in ‘Xian Ling Dao’, Xiaoyao and Yue’ru in the marriage fighting contest, Liu Jing Yuan being bitten by the spider, the leviathan who eventually kills Ling’er, and of course, Ling’er in her true Nuwa form chained up in the Demon Locking Pagoda.

It wasn’t hard figuring out the three mains leads; Li Xiaoyao, Zhao Ling’er and Lin Yue’ru, since there’s quite a bit of resemblance in their appearance. I had an idea of A’nu, but wasn’t quite sure of a few others like Tang Yu since he wasn’t main in the game at all. But of course, there was bound to be a few changes and I was interested to see how they could give an RPG which moved in a linear fashion to something dynamic. To date, it’s still one of my favourite drama opening footage of all time. The song “Killing Broken Wolves 殺破狼” by JS suits this perfectly, and just by hearing it now reminds me of how tragic this story becomes…

Opening Credits

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Now let’s talk a bit about the closing/ending credits video. The first thing I want to mention is, there is a TON of spoilers! I’m not sure why companies do this, but I feel it can really ruin a bit (okay…a lot) of the story, especially those who did not play the original game. Why? The ending theme is filled with pure sadness and tragic events (with most occurring towards the end of the drama). While the opening theme depicts some of the iconic scenes, it mostly acts like a character introduction. However, when it comes to the closing video, every scene makes a statement like “This character is going to die!” This one too! And this one!” It’s depressing and shocking. Every time I see the footage of the Demon Locking Pagoda crumbling, and a desaturated Yue’ru ringing her little bell, it makes me want to cry… That tragic scene along with poor blood-splattered Ling’er dying in Xiaoyao’s arms is just too much to bear.

As a standalone video, I think it has a great composition, and the song “Finally Understand 終於明白” by Power Station suits it well. I’m just not sure it was appropriate to spoil everything in one go. Being a Tangren Shanghai production, be warned! Many of their other series closing credits contain many many spoilers too (I learned this the hard way XD)

Closing Credits

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What do you think of the opening and closing credits? Did you feel the closing or opening revealed and spoiled too much? Did it affect the way you watched the drama, and anticipated? Drop a comment below and share your story :)

Comments (2)

Luckily the fansub I watched cut the opening and closing credits from all the eps except for the final one and am SUPER glad they did so! Every death was a shock to me and wouldnt have been completely ruined if I had seen them.

Love the music though. I just don’t get why Chinese dramas (and to an extent Japanese too) do this!

I think it may be the same reason why trailers of movies usually have tons of spoilers because they throw in all the best bits to entice you to watch it. I suppose it’s better than not showing any clips (some dramas just have credit text and nothing else), but still. SPOILERRRRSSS. xDD